The Hartlib Papers

Honoured Sir

   My good freind Mr Tho. Vaughan Minister of Smarden with whom I spoke on Tuesday last doth certainly assure mee that hee hath a powder &Iulap which by good experience he finds &confidently beleeves will infallibly cure the stone &Gravell in the Raines or bladder it workes immediatly &three doses are a perfect cure. I had certainly procured &sent you them but that my businesse here proves very troublesome intricate &chargeable &besides that my mony is short &I am endebted to Mr Vaughan on former accompts. If you write to him in my name &send him 20s he will send you the 3 <or 4> doses &his directions how to use &take them. He is a learned godly &grave Minister an old Puritaine &sufferer under the Bishops who expelled him from his imployment in Lincolneshire he was sheltered in London under Mr Gataker until the Perliament sent him hither where he hath suffered as much from the Anabaptists as is possible for a man in his condition in such times as ours have beene. His carrier by whom he sends to London for drugges [left margin:] by whom you must write &receive answer &c lives at Plackley in Kent (where I alsoe formerly had a liveinge) his name is Barton he lodgeth at the Queeneshead at Somershay neare Billingsgate in London he comes from

Mr Knight of Billinge in Godmarsham in Kent received the followinge prophesie from his brother Mr Thomson of Petham neare Canterbury &it is said to be written (I suppose by his Grandfather in some booke with other prophesies) A.D. MDC. Mr Thomson found it amongst his Grandfathers M.SS. &he &his brother Mr Knight did both compare the writeinge of the prophesie with other writeinge, knowne by them to be of their Grandfathers hand &by their agreement in character are assured that they were written longe since by him. The prophesie

          {In Albions Isle shall rise a Monke

          {In Wedlock joyned to a Punke

          {whom Fate decrees to give that Thumpe

          {which quite shall crush rebellious Rumpe

          {The wolves themselves shall then bemoane

          {when lions 3 doe Take the Throne.

[written alongside and below the prophecy:] I cannot but improve this opertunity to give my sense of this &thereby to take away that vaine credulity which doth advance the creditt of such like vanities to many mischeivous purposes. - I conceive this prophecie was made of Marten Luther (or some other protestant Minister in allusion to him shortly after his times) &that the rumpe was an oblique signification or description of some person or party remaineinge of some rebellious riseinge in those times &very probably amongst the [frish Kernes?] the worst of wolves of their Country. Our Kinge hath 4. Lions in his armes &beinge a Steward is properly Leo (his fathers motto in that other prophesie) &[not?] 3 Lions the character of the Plantagenets turne over

  [Or?] possibly Monke might signifie onely some Commander haveinge some such badge in his armes or some other resemblance in person habit or condition to that name whose wife was of noe good reputation

  This I am confident of that the prophesie was never written or designed for our times. But <For> there be[altered from beinge] in M.SS in private hands innumerable numbers of rimeinge prophesies of which sort I have seene a considerable bulke amountinge to many hundreds of verses in one folio MS. written long since about H.8. time brought out &scanned line by line when Lambert was at Newcastle to see if any would fitt him or monke the drift of some of which did manifestly betray them to be the inventions of dreaminge or idle Monkes turned into rime to hold up the hearts of their partizans in those dayes, Now [letter deleted] amongst these hundreds, which I saw though none of them did fitt our times yet that some one of the many thousands in severall hands in this nation made at sondry times on many occasions soe many hundred yeares past may <doth> fitt some remarkeable persons or actions in our times as well &perhaps better &truer then those persons × they were designedly made for ought not to carry any with a vaine beleefe in them as true prophesies divine or diabolicall. They beinge noe more strange or propheticall then some unhappy answers sometimes hapeninge to those who consult the shepheards Calander the sortes [virgshanæ?] or <the> ingenious applications of Poeticall posies &sentences to other persons &thinges then the Author intended [left margin:] If one booke were compiled after the Manner of the Sybilline verses of Old of all the Prophesies in England I doubt not but such variety would be found as would fitt all occasions as hers did &methinkes the practice &successe of one prophesie-mungers is of very paralell resemblance to that of the Roman preists readinge the Sibills oracles in difficult times to encourage their soldiers.

                   your assured Loveinge freind E [T?]

                         Canterbury Aprill 26th 1660

              For Mr Samuel Hartlibb the

              Elder at his Lodginges in the

              new buildinge, neare the [2d?]

              entrance into axe yard

              within on the left hand

              in that yard second or third

              doore      Kingstreete Westminster

              post paid.              these

[to left of address:] Westminster

[right margin, another hand:] Apr. 26. 60